Introduction
This report summarizes the key statewide findings from the Spring 2025 Campus Climate Survey, administered by The Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (The RP Group). The survey garnered 100 respondents, providing a cross-section of employee sentiment regarding the campus climate. The results reveal both strengths to build upon and areas requiring intervention to ensure an inclusive, supportive workplace for all employees. The statewide results presented below represent aggregated responses across all participating institutions. However, for some items, results from select colleges are excluded due to institutional customizations in which certain survey questions were not administered locally.
Demographics
The demographic characteristics of employee survey respondents across participating institutions are summarized below. Each institution received its own local data, enabling further disaggregation of categories such as “Other – Write-In” as appropriate for local analyses. The statewide overview presented here provides a comparative reference point for campuses to contextualize their own respondent demographics. Because the gender and race/ethnicity questions appeared at the conclusion of the survey, some participants did not encounter these items. In the table below, we analytically differentiate between respondents who reached the end of the survey but did not answer these non-required questions and those who exited the survey prior to completion.
Topline Survey Results
The topline survey results are intended to provide a general snapshot of the five main sections included in this report:
Campus Climate: The perceptions, attitudes, experiences, and expectations of individuals and groups on a campus, and the quality and extent of the interaction between various groups and individuals within an institution.
Empowerment and Agency: The extent that constituencies have the resources and tools to proactively and effectively make progress towards their personal and professional goals.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility: Perception of a culture that uplifts and promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion as core to its mission. The culture is reflected through the students it serves, employees hired, teaching and learning, support services, policies and practices.
Safety and Security: The extent that constituencies feel emotionally, mentally, and physically safe and secure at the institution.
Trust and Confidence: The extent to which constituencies personally experience fair and equitable treatment, understand the mechanisms for addressing unfairness, and feel that leadership actively promotes an inclusive and equitable campus environment.
These aggregated indicators below are designed to provide a high-level view of the overall climate experience, capturing perceptions across all employee respondents.
For the majority of the toplines below, percentages reflect the proportion of respondents who responded positively (i.e., “Strongly Agree” or “Agree”) across the survey items that comprise each construct. For the absence of racial tension item, we provide the percent of respondents who reported that they do not experience racial tension on their campus.
Results are grouped into three categories based on employee sentiment.
- Warrants Attention (0-50%): Half or fewer employees provided a favorable rating in this area, suggesting a need for closer review or improvement.
- Area of Opportunity (51-75%): A majority of employees responded positively, though there is opportunity for continued growth.
- Area of Strength (76-100%): Most employees provided favorable responses, indicating a relative strength for the college.
Campus Climate Experiences
The following sections show more detailed findings across five dimensions: (1) Campus Climate Rating Overall, (2) Empowerment and Agency; (3) Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility; (4) Safety and Security; (5) Trust and Confidence.
For agreement survey items, agree and disagree responses are aggregated and all respondents who selected another response (e.g., “Not Sure”, “Neither Agree nor Disagree”, or “Not Applicable”) are aggregated and shown in grey. We exclude all respondents who skipped each survey item, so grey bars connote active responses that do not align with either agreement or disagreement. The full frequency tables for each survey item are provided to the college in an excel file for further analysis.
Campus Climate Rating Overall
Empowerment and Agency
Overall Sense of Belonging
Sense of Belonging within Department/Area
Fair and Equal Treatment
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility
Racial Tension
Experiences with Discrimination
Experiences with Microaggressions
Experiences with Microaggressions among BIPOC Employees
BIPOC is a term used to acknowledge the historic and ongoing experiences of systemic exclusion, marginalization and inequality faced by African American/Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color. Of the 60 respondents who reported their Race/Ethnicity, 35% identified as BIPOC, meaning they selected at least one of the following race/ethnicity categories: African American/Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Latine/Hispanic, Middle Eastern, Arab, or Arab American, or Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. The following section presents a comparison of reported experiences with microaggressions between respondents who identified as BIPOC and those who responded to the race/ethnicity item but did not identify as BIPOC.
Safety and Security
Physical Safety
Psychological Safety
Trust and Confidence
Overall Leadership Ratings
The graph below takes the aggregate agreement levels across all items in the survey asking about each of the following groups.
Constituency Group
Department/Area
Executive Leadership
Board of Trustees
